Shooting Hysteria – Sorting out the Facts

Distracted driving is more likely to get you than a guy with an AR-15. The following is an example of where we could greatly improve on public safety without compromising our civil liberties or confiscating firearms. Each of these violations represents a far greater chance of death, injury and/or property loss than from the so-called assault rifle aka AR-15:

Talking on cell phones while driving

Texting while driving

Adjusting radio/climate controls while driving

From 2010-2014, driver’s who were distracted while driving caused nearly 4.5 million car crashes!!!! Common sense says we should be fixing this stuff long before we worry about banning a rifle owned legally by millions of Americans. Gun deaths get the headlines, but car crashes involve far more deaths, injuries and property loss.

ASSAULT WEAPONS FACTS - Most gun experts will tell you that the term “assault rifle” refers to a very specific set of weapons: Those that are fed ammunition from a detachable magazine, and can switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire, a capability known as “select fire.” By that narrow standard, the number of assault rifles in private hands is very small.

The National Firearms Actof 1934 required owners of fully automatic guns to register the weapons with the federal government. Since 1986, Congress has forbidden gunmakers from producing fully automatic weapons for the civilian market, leaving machine gun aficionados to collect older models, and then register them. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, there are roughly 638,000 machine guns in circulation in the United States, a number that includes both assault rifles like the M16 and more novel products, like the Uzisubmachine gun. There have been no homicides caused by a legally owned machine gun in the last 75 years.

But most laws titled under “assault weapons” use a broader definition that some experts say is overly broad. For example, California, Washington, D.C., New York, and five other states have regulations that typically apply to any magazine-fed, semiautomatic rifle that incorporates other design features, but the accessories are mostly just for aesthetics, to evoke a “tactical” look, they do not make the rifle more lethal.

National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s largest trade group. The NSSF does not use the term “assault rifle,” but tracks the production of “modern sporting rifles,” which typically refers to semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15.

According to a 2015 reportby the trade group, roughly one in 10 guns produced each year is a modern sporting rifle. In raw numbers, American gunmakers produced and imported 8.5 million such rifles between 1990 and 2012, and about one and two million annually every year since. This works out to between 15 and 20 million so-called assault weapons aka modern sporting rifles now in circulation. (An important note: The NSSF report includes weapons produced for law enforcement.)

There were 5,738 homicides in 2017. The population of the United States in 2017 was 325.98 million.

The highest per capita homicides rates were in States with the strictest gun control laws. Do the math and you will find that assault weapons barely register on the radar, despite the millions that are in public control.

CONCLUSION: If we were to somehow remove all so-called [assault weapons] from the population, it would have no discernible statistical impact on homicides. To push for such a ban is at best misguided and at worst, purely for political advantage. We would save more lives by not texting while driving.

14 Responses to Shooting Hysteria – Sorting out the Facts

We can use statistics, rational arguments, common sense, and cite the 2nd Amendment until Libby votes for Trump. The entire issue can be reduced down to one sentence:
Big government does not want its subjects to be armed.

If loss of innocent lives were the issue, personal automobiles wouldn’t be allowed. As long as we continue to let hysterics force us to compromise, the true reason for gun registration is going to become obvious.
Big government does not want its subjects to be armed.

In case I’m not being clear about this:
BIG GOVERNMENT DOES NOT WANT ITS SUBJECTS TO BE ARMED.

Luck and timing. Again I implore you to show me a single graph demonstrating a reversal of a negative economic trend beginning in January 2017, or even an acceleration of a positive trend. It can’t be done. These trends began under Obama, and go all the way back to 2010. Republicans denied positive economic news to pretend that there was no recovery from the global economic recession that began under Bush in order to bash Obama, and now they pretend that those trends began under Trump, even knowing they can’t support that claim with anything.

I never said the recovery didn’t start under Obama. Remember I’ve posted repeatedly the recession ended in June 2009, just six months after Obama took office. Which also means unless Obama was a miracle worker with a magic wand the recovery was set up by the actions taken by Bush.

Historically, recoveries take on the average 18 months. Obama’s recovery took all of his 8 years, when Trump picked up where Obama left off and in less that 2.5 years is making records in every economic recovery indicator. At the end of Obama’s term there were 13 million more people on food stamps, now there are six million fewer who are able to feed themselves and their families.

I don’t need a chart to prove America is a better place because of Trump, at least it is where democrats aren’t in charge like SF and LA. Trump is even sending a team to Calif. to help the homeless people the mayors and governors have failed.

I never said the recovery didn’t start under Obama. Remember I’ve posted repeatedly the recession ended in June 2009, just six months after Obama took office. Which also means unless Obama was a miracle worker with a magic wand the recovery was set up by the actions taken by Bush.

I’m dying. Please…tell me…exactly what did Bush do in 2008, at the height of the recession, to set up the recovery?

I don’t need a chart to prove America is a better place because of Trump

“New York (CNN Business)Black unemployment fell to a record low in August, helped by a jump in the number of black women on the job.

The unemployment rate for black workers fell to 5.5% from 6%, according to the Labor Department data. The previous record low of 5.9% was set in May 2018.

The unemployment rate for black women fell to a record 4.4% from 5.2% in July. The unemployment rate for black men crept up to 5.9% from 5.8%. But the previous month’s rate was a record, so the rate is still near its historic low.

Unemployment among workers who identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino also fell in August to 4.2%, which matched a record low set earlier this year.

Minority unemployment has been tracked by the Labor Department since the early 1970’s. Both black and Hispanic or Latino unemployment numbers have traditionally been higher than white unemployment, and it remains so today. White unemployment was 3.4% in August, up from 3.3% previously. But this is the smallest gap on record between the respective unemployment rates for blacks and whites.”https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/06/economy/black-unemployment-rate/index.html

“The number of Hispanics and Latinos employed set a record high in August as their national, seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate matched its record low of 4.2%, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday show.

In August, the unemployment rate for Hispanics and Latinos, aged 16 and up, was 4.2%, down from 4.5% in July, returning to the record low of 4.2% in April and May – which broke the record low of 4.3% set two months earlier in February. BLS began tracking Hispanic-Latino employment data in 1973.

285,000 more Hispanics had jobs in August, as the 27,866,000 employed broke the record for Hispanic employment of 27,701,000 set in December 2018. The number of Hispanics participating in the workplace rose in August, as did Hispanics’ labor force participation rate, which increased from 66.4% to 66.7%.